We sought answers in the right song, the right album to somehow make sense of the event.

In the days and months after the attack on the World Trade Center, we wanted music to help us. Strangely, some albums seemed to have unconsciously or subconsciously foretold the event and the war to come.

Others became cultural cornerstones for having been released on the day of the attacks (Sept. 11, 2001 was a Tuesday — the day of the week new albums are released in stores) or in the following weeks. Soon enough, the response we craved had become more critical, the grief making way for anxiety as the War on Terror raged on.

Here are 11 albums that defined 9/11 and its aftermath:

THE VISIONARIES

- Radiohead — Kid A (2000)

"Everyone has got the fear/What's going on?" Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke sings on The National Anthem, the apocalyptic, horn-laden centrepiece to the Oxford quintet's masterwork Kid A. Pop culture essayist and former Spin senior writer Chuck Klosterman wrote in his 2005 book Killing Yourself to Live that in coming up with the lyrics for Kid A — using bits of papers randomly pulled out of a hat — Yorke may have inadvertently pre-written the soundtrack to the infamous day, with lyrics repeating "This isn't happening" (on How To Disappear Completely) during the album's first half, the nightmare and the coming call for war sinking in ("This is really happening") later on Idioteque. Whether Klosterman was right or not, Kid A embodied — and still does — the pre-9/11 anxiety, and it remains the record that defined the first decade of the millennium.

- The Coup — Party Music (2001)

Oakland hip-hop group The Coup's fourth album Party Music had, musically and lyrically, very little to do with predicting what would happen on 9/11, the day the album was slated for release. It did however originally feature a picture of the World Trade Center exploding on its cover, a vision that looked eerily similar to the images of the Twin Towers that would forever be imprinted in our collective memories. The artwork, conceived in June 2001, was immediately pulled and replaced with a photo of a flaming cocktail, and the album was pushed back and released in November 2001.

- Wilco — Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)

"Tall buildings shake/Voices escape/Singing sad, sad songs." Wilco main man Jeff Tweedy wrote most of the lyrics that would make up Wilco's classic opus long before that fateful day in September 2001, the record's release held back until 2002 because of legal wranglings with the band's label, Reprise. The immediate perception upon its arrival, however, was that Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, which featured an eerie picture of Chicago's twin Marina City towers on its cover, referenced the day and the aftermath in many ways, with songs like Jesus, Etc. (where the lyrics above are taken from), Ashes of American Flags, Poor Places and War on War painting a picture, before the fact, of a country in mourning.

IN THE EYE OF THE STORM

- Jay-Z — The Blueprint / The Strokes - Is This It? (2001)

Released on 9/11, rapper Jay-Z's classic The Blueprint went straight to the top of the charts. Like The Strokes' Is This It? (released earlier in July) did for rock 'n' roll, The Blueprint redefined an entire genre in the midst of one of the darkest moments in U.S. history, both albums becoming the soundtrack to the months following the attacks on the World Trade Center. Though neither touched upon politics, war or religion (The Strokes did, however, pull the caustic New York City Cops from the American version of the album out of respect), it is almost impossible to play either without remembering exactly how we felt at that time.

- Slayer — God Hates Us All (2001)

"Pessimist, terrorist targeting the next mark/Global chaos feeding on hysteria" — thrash metal icons Slayer probably couldn't have written more ominous words on Disciple, the second song on God Hates Us All, considering the album was released on 9/11. Though ill-timed, God Hates Us All's virulent content about religion, murder and revenge captured the chaos of its release day and the aftermath to come. Slayer would eventually revisit 9/11 intentionally on 2006's Christ Illusion with Jihad, a song that describes the attacks from a terrorist perspective.

- Ryan Adams — Gold (2001)

Released on Sept. 25, two weeks after the WTC attacks, Gold immediately struck a chord. Maybe it was the upside down American flag on its cover, usually the sign of a ship in distress, or leadoff single New York, New York, an instant hit that became a timely balm on the wounds of the city. In a strange twist of fate, the iconic video for the song was shot four days before 9/11 and prominently featured the Twin Towers throughout, making the song even more poignant.

THE AFTERMATH AND THE WAR ON TERROR

- Bruce Springsteen — The Rising (2002)

Legend has it that, shortly after 9/11, Bruce Springsteen was accosted by a stranger on the street who told him, "We need you now." Springsteen's reflections on 9/11 became The Rising, his attempt to lift Americans out of the ashes and sorrow. While Toby Keith was ready to boot-stomp, pickup truck commercial-style, anyone who dared disagree with his "U-S-of-A" on songs like Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue, Springsteen's approach was more spiritual, with final note My City of Ruins, originally written as a tribute to New Jersey's Asbury Park in 2000, taking on an entirely new meaning after the collapse of the Twin Towers.

- Steve Earle — Jerusalem (2002)

As the political discourse in the U.S. became increasingly focused on war and xenophobia, Steve Earle ruffled a few feathers with his post-9/11 statement album Jerusalem, which contained songs about American defector and Islam/Taliban convert John Walker Lindh, about conspiracy theories and about the increasing level of paranoia in his country. Described as Earle's "state of the state" album, it somehow still ends on a hopeful note, Earle singing, "I believe there will come a day when the lamb and lion lie down in peace together in Jerusalem."

- Sleater-Kinney — One Beat (2002)

Portland, Oregon-based indie trio Sleater-Kinney's One Beat was one of the first openly defiant albums to come out following 9/11, tackling fear, the Patriot Act and the War on Terror against the backdrop of singer/guitarist Corin Tucker having become a new mother. "7:30 a.m./Nurse the baby on the couch/Then the phone rings/'Turn on the TV'/Watch the world explode in flames/And don't leave the house," Tucker blared on Far Away, calling out George W. Bush for going into hiding during the 9/11 attacks. One Beat hit hard and pulled no punches, paving the way for bands like Green Day and Dixie Chicks to openly criticize the Bush administration as the War on Terror started shifting to Iraq.

- Green Day — American Idiot (2004)

Punk rock went fully conceptual with Green Day's sprawling 13-song cycle, a record where frontman Billie Joe Armstrong harnessed the grandiose, operatic rock vision of The Who and Queen and transposed it into the heart of post-9/11 America. Yes, American Idiot's title track directly targeted George W. Bush and the War on Terror, but it was the incisive nature of the album as a whole, its cast of characters coming to grips with their country and their lives spiralling out of control, that fully captured the heartbreak and disillusion of the post-9/11 era.

fmarchand@vancouversun.com

Blog: vancouversun.com/sound

twitter.com/FMarchandVS

Vancouver Sun

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The soundtrack to 9/11, before and after: The albums that foretold and followed the fateful day 10 years ago

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